Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song

The Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the gospel music genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".

The award, reserved for songwriters, was first presented to James Harris III, Terry Lewis, James Q. Wright, and Yolanda Adams at the 48th Grammy Awards in 2006, for the song "Be Blessed" performed by Yolanda Adams. According to the category description guide for the 52nd Grammy Awards, the song "must contain melody and lyrics and must be either a new song or a song first achieving prominence during the eligibility year. Songs containing prominent samples or interpolations are not eligible."

Take the Crown (album)

Take the Crown is the ninth studio album released by British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. The album was released in the United Kingdom on 5 November 2012, via Island Records.

Take the Crown is preceded by the lead single, "Candy", a track Williams co-wrote with Gary Barlow which became his seventh solo number one single in the UK and 14th career UK number one. The album also featured the original demo version of Take That's "Eight Letters", which is entirely performed by Williams. It is his first solo album in three years after his return to Take That in 2010. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Take the Crown was the 36th global best-selling album of 2012 with sales of 1.2 million copies. To promote the album, Williams started the Take the Crown Stadium Tour, which lasted from June to August 2013.

Background

On 9 November 2009, Williams released his eighth solo studio album entitled Reality Killed the Video Star. The album incorporated elements of pop rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and adult contemporary music.Reality Killed the Video Star was viewed by critics and fans as being Williams' "comeback album" after the relative failure of his 2006 release, Rudebox. The album produced four singles, including the worldwide hit "Bodies".

Gospel music

Gospel music is a music genre in Christian music. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music usually has dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century, with roots in the black oral tradition. Hymns and sacred songs were repeated in a call and response fashion. Most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella. The first published use of the term ″Gospel Song" probably appeared in 1874. The original gospel songs were written and composed by authors such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane, and Fanny Crosby. Gospel music publishing houses emerged. The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music. Following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate.

Gospel Song (19th century)

The term Gospel Song, first used by Philip Bliss, was created in order to describe a new genre of spiritual songs that originated out of the church hymn singing tradition and was meant to support the preacher's message, the Gospel, at huge gatherings of faithless audiences during the Great Awakening of the Methodist Church in the U.S. during the late 19th century by finding new, easy to learn expressive melodies and using a repetitive structure of Verses and Choruses.

The original late 19th century Shaped-note Gospel Song founded the stylistic heritage and still lends its name to today's many different styles of Gospel music. In particular Traditional black gospel developed out of an style fusion between this ″white″ Gospel Song and the African American spiritual for example. Because of this modern understanding of the term Gospel in relation to music, the original Gospel songs today are often mistakenly referred to as hymns.

History